Last week on FEEDBACK FRIDAY we took an inspiring textile and color journey with Fibershed Ireland! We travelled to the island of Ireland and met Mario Sierra from Mourne Textiles. Mario is bringing a spinning mill at the foot of the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland back to life. Despite having a rich history of linen production from soil to textile, in the last 30 years the linen industry has pretty much left Ireland, save a handful of weavers and finishers. Mario intends to change that at Mourne Textiles.
We also met Jennifer Lienhard of AppleOak FibreWorks who talked about her experiments with woad from Ireland and beyond. Jennifer and Mario are important members of Fibershed Ireland and we learned so much from both of them.
Did we mention that almost all of us now want to go there for a tour? Put that one on the docket!
Watch the recording below. below.
Learn more about the groups involved in this week’s FEEDBACK FRIDAY below:
Mourne Textiles’ crowdfunding campaign
Mario and a team of visionary farmers and researchers with Fibershed Ireland are determined to join the missing links in the value chain and bring Irish-grown linen back to the island, with the help of a crowdfunding campaign and a call for skills. Another of Mario’s dreams is weaving Irish selvedge denim dyed with Irish-grown woad. Speaking of woad, we will also meet Jennifer Lienhard from AppleOak FibreWorks, a natural dye house in County Clare, in the West of Ireland. Jennifer will tell us about her experience growing and dyeing with woad. She will also tell us about her innovative dye house, which runs on rainwater. After being used for dyeing, the water is naturally treated and drop-fed back to the forest. A truly circular process!
FEEDBACK FRIDAY
If you are not familiar with FEEDBACK FRIDAY, every week, we speak with dyers, artists, scientists and scholars about our favorite topic, natural dyeing and color. Curated by Amy DuFault, Botanical Colors’ Sustainability Director and presented by Botanical Colors’ Founder Kathy Hattori. Categories Blog